Dynamically providing a feed of stories about a user of a social networking system

• US 9,241,036 B2
• Filed: 01/03/2013
• Issued: 01/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/11/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Zuckerberg, Mark E., Sanghvi, Ruchi, Bosworth, Andrew G., Cox, Chris, Sittig, Aaron, Hughes, Chris, Geminder, Katie, Corson, Daniel
• Primary Examiner(s): HUYNH, CONG LAC T
• Application Number:
  US13/733,814
• Publication Number:
  US 20130124636A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,111 Days
• Field of Search: 715/205, 715/273
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/134 Hyperlinking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/14 Tree-structured documents parsing G06F40/205; validation G06F40/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services

Abstract

To display a news feed in a social network environment, a social networking system generates news items regarding activities associated with a user of a social network environment. The social networking system may also attach an informational link associated with at least one of the activities to at least one of the news items, limit access to the news items to a predetermined set of viewers, and assign an order to the news items. The news items may be displayed in the assigned order to at least one viewing user of the predetermined set of viewers, and the number of news items displayed may be dynamically limited.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

monitoring a plurality of activities performed by a plurality of users of a social networking system, the plurality of users comprising a subject user and a plurality of other users;

receiving a request from a viewing user for a page of information about the subject user;

selecting, by the social networking system, a first set of activities that were performed by the subject user;

selecting, by the social networking system, a second set of activities that relate to the subject user and were performed by one or more of the other users;

generating a story for each of the selected first and second sets of activities, each story describing the corresponding selected activity;

generating a page of information about the subject user, where the page of information comprises generated stories; and

providing the page of information about the subject user to the viewing user for display.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

attaching a link associated with at least one of the activities performed by one or more of the other users to at least one of the generated stories, wherein the link enables the viewing user to participate in the same activity as the other user.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein a link is attached to a story about another user'"'"'s RSVP to an event, and the link enables the viewing user to RSVP to the event.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein a link is attached to a story about another user'"'"'s addition of a photo, and the link enables the viewing user to view the photo.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein a link is attached to a story about another user'"'"'s addition of a photo, and the link enables the viewing user to add another photo.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein a link is attached to a story about another user'"'"'s addition of an affiliation with a group in the social network environment, and the link enables the viewing user to add an affiliation with the group.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the generated stories comprises a story about an activity, where the activity is that the subject user was tagged by another user in a photo.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the generated stories comprises a story about an activity, where the activity is that the subject user was approved by another user for a relationship.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the generated stories comprises a story about an activity, where the activity is that the subject user was mentioned by another user in a posting in the social networking system.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the generated stories comprises one or more stories about an activity outside the social networking system.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the generated stories comprises one or more stories about activities of one or more other users who are connected to the user in the social networking system.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the generated stories comprises one or more stories about the subject user'"'"'s own activities.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the page of information comprises a web page.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more activities of the selected first and second sets of activities were selected based on an affinity of the activities with the viewing user.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing a set of privacy settings established by the subject user; and

filtering one or more activities from the generated stories based on the subject user'"'"'s privacy settings.

16. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing computer program code for:

monitoring a plurality of activities performed by a plurality of users of a social networking system, the plurality of users comprising a subject user and a plurality of other users;

receiving a request from a viewing user for a page of information about the subject user;

selecting, by the social networking system, a first set of activities that were performed by the subject user;

selecting, by the social networking system, a second set of activities that relate to the subject user and were performed by one or more of the other users;

generating a story for each of the selected first and second sets of activities, each story describing the corresponding selected activity;

generating a page of information about the subject user, where the page of information comprises generated stories; and

providing the page of information about the subject user to the viewing user for display.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, further comprising:

attaching a link associated with at least one of the activities performed by one or more of the other users to at least one of the generated stories, wherein the link enables the viewing user to participate in the same activity as the other user.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein a link is attached to a story about another user'"'"'s RSVP to an event, and the link enables the viewing user to RSVP to the event.

19. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein a link is attached to a story about another user'"'"'s addition of a photo, and the link enables the viewing user to view the photo.

20. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein a link is attached to a story about another user'"'"'s addition of a photo, and the link enables the viewing user to add another photo.

21. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein a link is attached to a story about another user'"'"'s addition of an affiliation with a group in the social network environment, and the link enables the viewing user to add an affiliation with the group.

22. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the generated stories comprises a story about an activity, where the activity is that the subject user was tagged by another user in a photo.

23. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the generated stories comprises a story about an activity, where the activity is that the subject user was approved by another user for a relationship.

24. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the generated stories comprises a story about an activity, where the activity is that the subject user was mentioned by another user in a posting in the social networking system.

25. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the generated stories comprises one or more stories about an activity outside the social networking system.

26. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the generated stories comprises one or more stories about activities of one or more other users who are connected to the user in the social networking system.

27. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the generated stories comprises one or more stories about the subject user'"'"'s own activities.

28. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the page of information comprises a web page.

29. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein one or more activities of the selected first and second sets of activities were selected based on an affinity of the activities with the viewing user.

30. The computer program product of claim 16, further comprising:

storing a set of privacy settings established by the subject user; and

filtering one or more activities from the generated stories based on the subject user'"'"'s privacy settings.